A few more pics of the VA Hospital

Now that I've had the chance to get settled in a bit, I thought I'd share a bit more about the beautiful building I work in. It's really something. The entire campus was constructed at the turn of the twentieth century, and was one of the eight original national old soldier's homes that were spread all across the country to house civil war vets. You have to remember, at the turn of the 20th century, the civil war had only ended 35 years before....that's not so long, when you really think about it!

The building pictured here is building #2, one of the original dormitory buildings, and it just happens to be the building that houses my office, which is located in the basement... just under the main steps pictured here.

One of the coolest things I found out was that it was built at the same time as George Vanderbilt was finishing up building his fabulous estate in Asheville (Biltmore House, anyone?).

Consequently, when he was through, there were quite a few out-of-work itinerant stone masons that came over the mountains to work here. Their beautiful artwork is displayed generously all throughout the campus, nowhere more

prevalent than the main entrances, like the one here on my office building.

I did my best to get as close as I could, but the building is actually enormous, even though it's only three stories above the ground. Here's another darker pic, but I took it because there were ravens perched on the roof, lol. I thought that was really cool.. Possibly another sign? You decide.... but my vote is a resounding YES.

From the front of my building, you can see straight down the main avenue past other dormitories (which are all now office buildings) to

what used to be the main hospital at the far end (pictured here). It is now just a small admin building that is attached to the HUGE main hospital, comprised of three other buildings, behind this one. Although the new buildings are really nice, none of them hold the charm of the originals, in my opinion.

There are also other really cool buildings to tell about, but I will wait until I can post pics of them to say more. I will say, though that I had a very cool and unique experience on my first day that I will have to revisit for sure. I really want to share that one.